CHRIS-VINCENT WRITES: Disgusting Treatment Of Graduate Employees By Employers In Ghana – There’s Only ONE Way To Stop It

The treatment meted out to employees, especially graduates, by their employers in Ghana is disgusting and borders on abuse, GhanaCelebrities.Com editor Chris-Vincent Agyapong Febiri has said.

In a piece on his social media page, Chris-Vincent calls on graduates to take issues into their own hands and become creators of jobs, to cease the dependency and gain some much needed independence.

Looking at the salaries of some workers in the country and in comparison to the amount of labour they put in, Chris-Vincent argues that the remuneration on offer is woefully inadequate, especially in light of the skyrocketing standard of living in the country.

Let’s look at this, apparently, someone earns “¢500 per month at GN bank as full staff, that is ridiculously low” writes a friend.

That’s less than £100 a month, for 8 hours 5x a week? And the truth is, these people work more than 8 hours, mostly they are even abused by their bosses.

I am over due to write an article on the relationship between employers and employees in Ghana–it’s disgusting.

I used to work some years back in UK before becoming self-employed. Though I hated working for others, I always understood the relationship as this; I have a set of skills you need, and you have money that I want. So we are just in a simple contractual exchange–I offer you the services, you pay me for it with all the accompanying respect.

In Ghana, it’s nothing like this. I have asked several people to quit their jobs in Ghana and do something on their own because of the absurd manner their bosses treat them for the peanuts they pay them.

You shouldn’t go to university for many years and come out to be treated like a fool by someone in any sort of employment.

What I have realised is that most employees sell themselves short. Walk out, if you have to–even if you don’t have anything to eat the next day. If the boss wants, he/she should go and do the damn work.

I was told about this particular big pharmacy in Ghana, name starts with ‘To’ where employees got dismissed for not going to say “WELCOME’ to the boss’ wife when she returned from a holiday.

People are in jobs in Ghana without contracts, no appointment letters and literally, no rights–they don’t even have closing times. The boss determines each day when they ought to finish, for as low as 500 or 600 GHS a month.

One of my dedicated writers works from the comfort of wherever he finds himself each day. I don’t see myself as his boss, I see him as someone I work with and from the comfort of his room or bathroom, each month, he receives a basic salary of 1200 GHS—with bonus when appropriate.

He’s free to work whatever time he wants and I only review his work once a while. He has the needed freedom and his productivity is amazing.

I am sure his colleagues who wear ties and suits in the hot Ghana sun each day, riding trotro to some MTN or Bank Offices to work for peanuts may think he’s a loser because he works from his bedroom or backyard on his laptop.

But the truth is, he’s making more than them, has freedom and cuts down on travel cost as well as the associated travel risk.

Graduates in Ghana need to start thinking out of the box.

A lot of people including family do not understand why I am not practising LAW yet, after all, I have the grades (LL.B, LL.M and now another LL.M in Legal Practice Course to be finished in June). One of my professors does not even understand why I am getting two masters degrees in Law–she thinks I am some sort of Sheldon Cooper.

The truth is, how much I make in terms of money now that I am on a frolic of my own can be doubled if I instantly became some sad stressed lawyer in someone’s law firm. Also, I wouldn’t have the luxury of time–I will work 8am to like 6pm each day for 5 or 6 days as a junior lawyer.

Am I ready to have my life become this way? Knowing that we live once and never live again?

I want to dodge that; by running around the fountain until I am able to start my own legal consultancy firm. It wouldn’t perhaps give me £2million a year, but I may have the freedom and self-respect I cherish.

Most bosses in Ghana are losers with money in their bank accounts and graduates allow them to treat them like sh*ts.

Looking for jobs is so old school, creating jobs is what rocks!

Now, tell me about how much someone you know earns a month in Ghana–what does the person do and what sort of hell does the person go through?

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THE SOLUTION:

To end this obvious imbalance and exploitation in Ghana, we need a a statutory minimum wage system like what the UK and other countries have.

For those who do not know, the UK has a minimum hour wage. Currently, it is set at £7.20 per hour for any person over 25 years in UK. Which means no employer can pay anyone of 25 years or over below £7.20 per hour.

So if you are even a toilet cleaner and over 25 years, you will have to be paid at least £7.20 per hour.

France has a national minimum wage of 1,457.52 EUR per month too and Ireland has a 1,461.85 EUR per month.

8 Comments

Woah, Chris thank you for writing this article, I was actually thinking of opening a chain of businesses in Ghana, Kumasi just to promote tourism and create jobs and I was just thinking of how to establish a good respectful relationship between myself and future employees and I agree that it would be good to have a set minimum standards wage but it would probably be like 150 GHC. But this article was really informative about wages and treatment of staff in Ghana. But I know someone in Ghana that gets 300 GHC a month and I was thinking that it wasn’t good but someone else said it was really good but I know it’s not.

I am glad this has been of benefit to you. A laissez faire market breeds such exploitation and that’s why we need strong government institutions to at least enforce policies that would fight back the exploitation of the common man.

I live in Canada , Saskatoon and our minimum wage here is $10.55 per hour. You clock in to start work and clock out when you done your shift.people have degree and they work in groceries store. Ghana needs to starts using this hour work in other to employ more people instead of one individual working for 8hrs. You get ur pay every two weeks. If you don’t work you will not get money. But with this monthly payment by the middle of the month you are already broke. Government officials travel everyday and they don’t implement this simple rules in Ghana is so frustrating. Some parts of Ghana is even beautiful than this place. We have along way to go